Man takes sickle to entire family

Tahir said their squabbling had escalated to the point where he decided to kill them.

SIALKOT: A man has stabbed seven members of his family, killing four of them, because he got sick of their fighting, he told reporters from his prison cell on Sunday.

Rana Tahir, a health Department official who lived In Sialkot’s Tilwada Mughlan area, turned himself over to the police after stabbing and killing his sons Mohsin and Ahsan, sister-in-law Fatima and wife Nazia. Tahir also injured his youngest son Nadeem, brother Rana Muhammad Yousuf and second wife Nighat.

Tahir said he had been married to Nighat and Nazia for over a decade and their squabbling had escalated to the point where he decided to kill them. “My wives used to bicker and fight all the time. Each pressured me to divorce the other one and when I refused they involved my sister-in-law,” he told reporters from behind bars.

Yousaf, Nadeem and Nighat survived the attack and were admitted to the local tehsil headquarters hospital by neighbours who saw Tahir leaving the house.

“His clothes were drenched in blood and he was still holding the sickle he used to kill them with,” said neighbour Mansoor, adding that Tahir headed straight for the police station after the murders.

He said that he had initially thought Tahir had killed the whole family. “A group of us entered the house and found the bodies in the kitchen area. When Yousuf called out to us we realised there were some survivors and we took them to the hospital,” Mansoor said.

Medical Superintendent Dr Karimullah said that Tahir’s wife Nighat was in critical condition. “There are deep gashes to their face and torso but the boy and Yousaf are stable,” he said.

Station house officer (SHO) Shabbir Warraich said that Tahir walked into the station at 4.30pm and asked the police officials to arrest him.

“His clothes were covered in blood and we asked him what he had done. He confessed that he had killed his entire family in cold blood,” Warraich said.

The SHO said that he dispatched a police team to Tahir’s house to confirm the story and found out that three people had survived, while the rest were all dead.

Tahir said that he had drugged the family before killing them. “I was extremely depressed about the situation at home and the constant fights. Yesterday I decided to put an end to it all. I drugged their food and killed them after we had completed the meal,” he said.

The police have registered a case against Tahir and placed him in lock up.

Yousuf said that he had no idea why Tahir would kill his own family. “Yes there were many arguments in our house but they were nothing out of the ordinary. Routine arguments don’t lead to murder and trying to kill all of us,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2010.